Our daughter Courtney (age 13) has written up how she deals with the less
well behaved ferrets that come into our shelter.  We will not let a ill
behaved ferret leave our a shelter and Courtney has taken on most of the
education of the few ill mannered ferrets that have come in.  Kits usually
start out thinking biting humans in play is okay.  They need to go through
the same education process.
 
Courtney also likes to have kissy ferrets.  She wrote how she gets this
training in as well.
 
In Courtney's words:
----------
When a ferret bites me I will teach it never to do it again.  I show it who
is boss!!  If a ferret has a good grip on me what I will do is scruff
him/her and bite him/her lightly on the foot.  The ferret then lets go for
me.  I then gently flick his/her nose, softly smack his/her butt and shout
"NO BITING!" If the ferret does it again I do the same thing again.  Once
the ferret realizes not to bite I will give it Linatone.  I don't put up
with biters.  I do this with my ferrets and I have not been bitten in 6 or 7
months.
 
What I do to teach a ferret to give kisses is start making a kissing sound
in front of the ferrets lips and the ferret usually gets the idea to kiss me
back.  Sometimes the ferret does not do it so I give them some Linatone.  I
then start kissing their lips while they lick their lips.  When they have no
more Linatone I give them more kisses and they start to kiss me back
expecting to get Linatone.  I then sometimes will give them Linatone.  That
is how I get a ferret to kiss me.
----------
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
[Posted in FML issue 1475]